Category: humpback whale ID

August #1 2022 – How do Whales Nurse Their Babies?

More Moms with calves are showing up here in the Salish Sea this season – 6 pairs sighted so far. Judging by their playful acrobatics and assertive blows the young ones are thriving. The mothers seem to be in good shape as well considering they lose 1/3 of their body weight during the >10,000km (6,000 mile) round trip migrations to Mexico, Central America or Hawaii and back. Add in the previous 4 months of nursing her hungry baby and it’s no surprise that a mother whale’s prime directive once she reaches the feeding waters is to feed.

“It’s Big Mama” “And she’s got a calf!”  Terry is jubilant. Big Mama is one of the whales we have met several times during the years we’ve been on the water. She is a prolific mother and veteran of the humpback comeback to the Salish Sea. Big Mama was the first whale to return to these waters in 1997. Since then she has brought each of her new calves back with her.

Big Mama and her new baby are accompanied by another adult whale. We couldn’t tell who it was because we couldn’t see the whale’s flukes or whether (s)he was female or male. If the companion whale migrated together with Big Mama and her calf from their southern mating/birthing area then this whale is probably a male who is interested in Big Mama as a potential mate. This “escort” can be an asset to Big Mama and her calf if a pod of killer whales attempts an attack on the young one as he will protect the calf with Big Mama. However, he can also be a nuisance if he attempts to mate with her and interferes with nursing.

Mother humpback whales nurse their babies for the first year even though the baby is already learning to fish as soon as she reaches the feeding area. The baby thrives on mother’s rich milk, which is between 45-60% fat  How do whales (and dolphins) nurse in their underwater environment? Terrestrial mammals like humans have nipples which are exposed and easy to suckle. But the mammary glands of cetaceans (whales and dolphins) are concealed inside 2 slits on either side of their genital slit low on the abdomen. The nipples are inverted inside these mammary slits. A whale calf must dive underneath the mother and nudge the mammary slits with her rostrum to release the nipple from the slit. Whale calves might be able to roll their tongues into a tube shape and press their rolled tongue around the nipple to channel milk. The mother could then squirt milk into the calf’s mouth using muscles around her mammary glands. Because of the high fat content the consistency of Mom’s milk is thick and doesn’t easily dissolve in water if some leaks out.

Mom and calf stay in close physical contact in the first months of the baby’s life. So much of what transpires between moms and babies is speculation because it happens underwater out of our visual range. Their vocal communication also happens outside of our human hearing range. Mother and baby communicate through touch and very quiet low frequency grunts, barks and groans. They “whisper”  so their sounds don’t attract killer whales. Because these “whispers” are so quiet Jude can only pick up a signal on her hydrophone within about 200m of the whales. However, since the whale whispers are too low for humans to hear it’s impossible in realtime to know whether any whale conversations are actually occurring. This can be very frustrating! It is only after recording in the vicinity of whales and afterwards importing the recordings into a software program called a spectograph which translates the sound waves into a visual representation that we can see whether we recorded something. It’s also possible to speed up the slow low frequency sound waves 2 or 3 times within the program so they can be heard in our human hearing range. Unfortunately there is no room in Blue P’s small cockpit for any more audiovisual or computer equipment and no budget for expensive hardware and software. All this has to be done later on our home system.

We learn that the whales are communicating all the time, which is obvious with any amount of time observing their interactions. In the plankton filled waters of the summer Salish Sea it is vibration and sound that carry myriad whale messages through the water. Once on the feeding grounds Big Mama and her calf may associate with various other whales through the season and even during one day. We watch them form a group, separate for a while and come back together obviously communicating with each other. Since all Big Mama’s children return to their mother’s feeding area some of these whale companions may be the new calf’s older brothers and sisters.  So many intriguing questions…….

 

August #2 2022 – Surprise!

Terry and I have more than a nodding – pun intended – acquaintance with sleeping whales. In fact sleeping is what whales seem to enjoy most when in close proximity to Blue Parrot, our 50 year old sailboat. So when we encountered 2 humpback whales peacefully snoozing side by side in mid Sutil Channel Terry and I prepared to settle in for an afternoon nap. In fact Terry was just about to put his camera away for a while when this happened.

Which proves once again that understanding the motivations and behaviours of whales is a mysterious journey indeed.

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July 2022 #3 – Bubble Feeding!

“T-Rex is bubble feeding off Wilby Shoals” the voice of whale watching guide ‘Supernova’ sings cheerily over SV Blue Parrot’s VHF radio.
“Let’s go!” I turn Blue P 90°W. We’ve been floating between Quadra and Cortes Islands scanning for marine mammals.
“It’ll take us half an hour to get there. She’ll probably have stopped by then.” Terry sighs .”it would be amazing to see lunge feeding again”
“YES!” I am juiced. We’ve only seen humpback whales lunge feeding once before and that was 4 years ago in 2018 – an unforgettable experience. Here is the link to that Blog:
https://welcomingwhales.com/2018/10/24/october-2018-humpbacks-lounge-feeding/

During the half hour it takes to get there at our extreme cruising speed of 4.85 knots we try to pinpoint the exact location of the whale. Whales are big but the ocean is bigger and they easily disappear from view. “There’s a circle of boats about 200m off the point. 3 look like whale watching boats” Hawk-eye Terry reports from the bow.

“I see them – on our way” If you can’t find whales in their feeding areas during the summer it’s a good bet that somebody else has. Boats that have been lingering in one place for a while without obvious fishing gear are probably with a whale. And people fishing forget to fish when there’s a lunge feeding whale nearby!

T-Rex and friend lunge to the surface with throats full of fish

“I see the whales! 2 just came up in the middle of those boats” I slow to an even slower crawl and inch up to the scene. “Woah!” “Right beside the Boat!” They are less than 30 meters away, in close to the shore. Wilby shoals has depths varying from a few feet to hundreds of feet. Currently Blue P’s depth sounder is reading 18 feet!. “I’ve got to move out from the shore” Jude tells Terry. The whales move too – right past us around all the boats. In the time it takes us to move 30 meters they have covered 230. We wait. 20 minutes later………
“They’re coming back this way. They may be doing a circuit”. Terry shouts.  I drop the hydrophone to record any feeding burps and belches.
“They’re making that sound!” “the whining sound that herds the fish-Uhrrrrrrrrrr? I try to imitate them.  “I hear the  bubbles………. Now they’re coming up! Phshshsh—–BUBUBUBUBUBUBUB”  It’s a fairly pitiful imitation but with the hydrophone I can hear what the whales are doing underwater and predict when they will come up. Terry gets ready with the camera but I can’t predict where they will come up. He watches the sea gulls circle and hones in when they drop towards the water just as the whales break the surface. Focusing the camera on the exact spot where Terry deduces the whales will surface is a finely tuned art, experience and a large lump of luck.

In order to record a decent signal with the hydrophone we have to be within 200m of the whales.  It’s difficult with all the boats starting and stopping their motors to keep up with the whales. But we can’t begrudge anyone this awesome experience. Everyone out here is just as thrilled as we are. And there are times when the whales are close enough for a clear recording. I am over the moon “I’ve waited 7 years to record bubble feeding”. In fact both of us are over the moon. We linger longer with our lunge feeding friends as the other boats leave, the sun sets and the moon rises. Ah…this is the magic time for the best video and audio recordings. We’ll travel back by moonlight – and our running lights of course.

September #1 2021 – How to Sex a Humpback Whale

Terry, the amphibious videographer and I are scanning the water between Powell River and Texada Island searching for a humpback whale that might be entangled. “She said they saw a white buoy on the whale’s back around the dorsal fin.” Reported Susan, the founder of the Wild Ocean Whales Society and monitor of the whale reporting hotline. “They couldn’t be any more specific than that and they weren’t sure but keep an eye out.” So we were, 4 eyes out to be exact. We’d seen half a dozen whales today but none with any trap gear attached. Sometimes the light playing on a wet black back can play tricks on human eyes.

We have been floating in the area of the Upper Sunshine Coast off Powell River for the past few days. We’ve floated around with 1 duo and 1 trio of humpback whales this morning who don’t seem to mind that they are snoozing and/or fishing in the middle of a ferry line used frequently by 2 local ferries that travel across the strait and back. Perhaps they like the predictability of a ferry schedule and time their activities around them although I wouldn’t stake my fishing bank on BC ferries schedules! Staying out of their way and minimizing the effects of rolling ferry wake and loud engine noise on video and underwater sound recordings is a challenge. But whales are where you find them so when 2 of the trio get lively and head South along Texada Island shore we are curious.

A Huge noisy Barge is heading towards them (and us). We’ve observed some sleeping whales reacting to the big wake of a heavy displacement ship with what seems to us to be an annoyed or startled tail slap. These 2 aren’t sleeping but one raises flukes high in the air and slams half their body down in a powerful peduncle throw. The other whale is tail lobbing repeatedly. “Are they pissed off because of the barge?” I wonder. But the barge passes and the high level activity continues.

The whales are raising their flukes high enough out of the water that their genital area is visible in some of the video. It is very difficult to determine the sex of a humpback whale. A very clear view of the underside of their body between flukes and bottom of their throat pleats is necessary. Both male and female whales have navels, longitudinal genital slits and a bump near the flukes called a carina. The females have 2 mammary slits which cover their nipples, one on either side of the genital slit. They also have a smaller “hemispherical lobe” which is a bump at the base of their genital slit.

Humpback Whale Genitalia

Does sexing the humpback whales in the video still elude you? Keep in mind that the clear illustration of Humpback Genitalia is not obscured by jets of seawater coursing over the whale’s body from the tremendous splashing caused by a peduncle throw. Also missing are the many barnacles clinging to all openings and bumpy skin surfaces. Good Luck!

December 2020 #2 – Chain of Whales Feed Together

“I don’t know how many whales are out here! 6 of them – at least.” Terry is counting whales diving, surfacing, circling. They’re almost rubbing together they’re so close. I wonder: “Are they fishing? They must be fishing”.

It’s common in Alaska for humpback whales to form large feeding groups where each whale has a role to play. The iconic shot of all the whales surfacing together, mouths agape and pleated throats bulging is in every humpback whale documentary. Here in the Salish Sea we have yet to see anything like this group feeding buffet. Perhaps the schools of fish are bigger in Alaska or maybe the schools are in deeper water here and the whales finish gulping under the water. Even without the lunging at the surface half a dozen whales swirling and moving together is fascinating to see.

“Do you recognize anyone?” I ask camera man Terry as he zooms in on the action. “One is definitely ‘Zed’, with the chewed off left fluke.”

“Yeah” Terry answers “and I see Nick with them. See that white fluke? Could be Apollo or maybe even Neptune” Neptune is Apollo’s calf.

“Snouter!” I exclaim as a whale rostrum partially emerges from the water. Snouter is our affectionate name for a whale’s “face” also known by whale lovers as “pickeleface” because of the many bumps on a whale’s chin. Each bump contains at least one single sensing hair. Biologists are not sure what tubercule hairs are sensing but a good guess would be movement and vibration. Like the whiskers of seals and sealions humpback whales could sense schools of fish from the “trails” of disturbance their swimming leaves in the water. Tubercule hairs may even sense electrical charge or something more mysterious since they are rich in nerves.

Mother whales like to support their babies on their rostrums so they might have other functions as well – smell? There is an organ in a humpback’s chin whose function hasn’t been identified as yet. Could it have an olfactory function along with the tubercules? The deeper down the whale whole one ventures the more questions bubble out!

November 2019 #3 Entangled!

NOTE TO READERS: All “Quotes” in this blog are approximations of conversations and are NOT the actual words that were said by any of the people quoted.

“Let’s check out the other side of Harwood” Terry suggests. The 2 frolicking humpback whales and their sealion friends have left and it’s a sunny afternoon. We’re drifting around Harwood when the VHF radio crackles with an incoming alert. “Susan, where’s your boat?” It’s a call from Nick Templeman of Campbell River Whale Safaris to Susan MacKay, local whale naturalist and sightings recorder, founder of WOWS.  “I’m with 3 whales**. I think the calf got entangled in a prawn trap line. It’s been thrashing around trying to free itself. It might be panicking.” “Is it trailing line or a buoy?” Susan radios back. “I’m out in my skiff and heading over there. Can you stay with the whales?” “Roger that” Nick replies.

We have just passed the prawn traps they are talking about. We scout for escaped buoys and detached floating polypro line but don’t immediately find anything. So we head in the direction of Nick’s fast zodiac while calling him on our VHF radio. “Blue Parrot to Nick. How is the whale now?” “Looks like the 2 adults have broken off the buoy. The young one’s managed to shake off the line. I don’t see anything else on the calf. All 3 whales are looking more relaxed. I’m going to stay with them for a while longer to make sure they’re alright.” he answers. “I’ll see if I can find the broken line and buoy” Susan calls “They’re supposed to be using sinking line on prawn and crab traps so these entanglements don’t happen.”

This time the whale gets free. Susan ensures that no lines remain on the calf and finds the broken off  buoy. Later she tells us that too many people are abandoning line, traps and buoys. Susan has photographed derelict buoys all over the Salish Sea. They are a death trap to whales and other marine mammals.

Many people believe that all whales use echolocation to precisely image their surroundings. But only toothed whales have the physiology necessary to echolocate. Baleen whales like humpbacks, right whales, blue whales and grey whales do not have that ability. They may use a form of sonar to find large schools of fish and krill but fine distinctions of materials and spatial location are not available to them. Even young orca who have extremely sensitive echolocating abilities get entangled in lines and nets because they are curious, playful, and unaware of the dangers human contraptions pose to them.

It’s not difficult to change this situation and protect our marine friends from entanglement and drowning if people follow guidelines for using sinking line on prawn and crab traps. Please do it.

** The 3 whales are later identified by Nick as BCX0545 Europa / Bounty, her calf BCX Pony, and BCY Dalmatian